The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance is 600,000 and rising, and recently research forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding of him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and direct truth that Christ of the gospels requests a kind of profound affection centered on the needy has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the determined opposition to Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the worst regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both humility and conviction, a mixture that serious American Christians should embrace.
